ON THE MAP

ON THE MAP; Remembering a Boarding School for Black Students

By KAREN DEMASTERS

Published: October 1, 2000

The former campus of the Bordentown Manual and Training School, a residential school for black high school students in Burlington County, is now owned by the state. Some of the buildings, dating to 1886 when the school was founded, are used by the Department of Corrections to house juvenile offenders, but most are vacant and sinking into disrepair. The current condition of the school belies the impact it had on black education in New Jersey and beyond. Thomas C. Guy Jr., who has made a number of documentaries on black history topics, talked about a video documentary he is making about the Bordentown school. He is still searching for people with connections to it; he can be reached at tcgjr@aol.com

Q. How did the school come into existence?

A. The Rev. Raymond Rice was born a slave in 1845 in Laurens, S.C., and volunteered to fight on the side of the Union in the Civil War. After the war he was encouraged to go north and get an education, and he became an A.M.E. minister. He founded the school in 1886 in his living room in New Brunswick and then moved it to Bordentown on the property of the family of Admiral Charles Stewart, the captain of the U.S.S. Constitution from 1813 to 1815. There is a reunion here every year that draws at least 120 graduates back to the school, which covered 400 acres and looked like an old Southern plantation.

Q. What happened to the school?

A. The school flourished until the 1950's, when the Brown vs. the Board of Education decision ended segregation. The school closed in 1955. Some say it is because whites would not have wanted to go to it.

Q. What was the school like?

A. It was fairly hard to get into and expensive, although there were scholarships. It was self-supporting and operated year round. There were award-winning cattle herds, horses, apple orchards and other farm operations; the scholarship students worked on the farm. There were 500 to 600 students from all over New Jersey and a few from out of state.

Q. What was the educational philosophy?

A. There were two rival philosophies of education. Booker T. Washington supported a practical education, while W.E.B. Du Bois espoused a classical education. It is significant that both of these leaders evaluated the school and praised it. The students received an education in the classics and Latin, as well as in math and sciences. The school became famous for the quality of its teachers and the graduates it turned out. Dr. William Valentine, a Harvard graduate, was principal here the longest. Simon Haley, the father of author Alex Haley, taught here, and George W. Haley, another son who is now U.S. Ambassador to Gambia, graduated from here. Frances Grant, the first black woman to serve on the U.S. Circuit of Appeals, taught here. Albert Einstein and Paul Robeson lectured here.

Q. What have you filmed?

A. I have interviewed about 125 people: former teachers, students, people who remember the school. I have seven on-camera interviews. I want to get as many as possible because these people are growing older. The Rutgers Institute for Ethnicity, Culture, and Modern Experience is collaborating with me on the documentary. Giles R. Wright, the director of the Afro-American History Program of the New Jersey Historical Commission, brought the school to my attention, although I had heard of it before. I am still finding out things about it. I want to make this because the existence of the school shatters some of the myths about blacks. Even in slavery, whenever blacks had an opportunity, they tried to learn. KAREN DeMASTERS

Photo: Thomas C. Guy Jr. is making a documentary about Bordentown Manual and Training School, founded 1886. (David Hunsinger for The New York Times)